System and method for performing video or still image analysis on building structures

ABSTRACT

Methods and systems for automating the management and processing of roof damage analysis. In some embodiments image data associated with damaged roofs is collected and automatically analyzed by a computing device. In some embodiments, the image data is modified automatically to include descriptive metadata and visual indicia marking potential areas of damage. In one embodiment, the systems and methods include a remote computing device receiving visual data associated with one or more roofs. In one embodiment, insurance company specific weightings are determined and applied to received information to determine a type and extent of damage to the associated roof. In one embodiment, results of the methods and systems may be used to automatically generate a settlement estimate or supplement additional information in the estimate generation process.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No.62/301,411, filed Feb. 29, 2016, the entire disclosure of which ishereby incorporated herein by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure is directed generally toward building damagerecognition systems and methods and more particularly toward systems andmethods for utilizing video or still images to analyze types of damageto building structures.

BACKGROUND

Homes and commercial buildings may experience damage or otherwise benegatively impacted due to fires, earthquakes, tornados, flooding, andother disasters. Such disasters may be of natural causes, or they mayresult from mechanical failure, human error, or any number of othernon-natural causes. As an example, flooding may result from a widevariety of natural conditions, including excessive rain, storm surges,or rapid melting of snow or ice. Additionally, freezing temperatures maycause the water inside water pipes to freeze, expand and burst thepipes. Water hoses may be become disconnected, or may become brittle andbreak. Sinks and commodes may overflow from clogged pipes. As anotherexample, fire can result from natural causes, such as lightning strikes,or it can result from human-related causes, such as a gas leak resultingin gas buildup, ignition and “puff back”; a stove or oven that becomesexcessively hot; an overloaded electrical circuit; or a curling ironleft in close proximity to a flammable material. The cause of damage toproperty may come from any number of sources and the damage caused tothe property typically varies greatly with each and every cause in anynumber of ways related to the scope and magnitude of the damage.

The damage caused by water, fire, hail or other disasters is rarely easyto identify, or even limited to the area where the mishap occurred. Forexample, hail may damage a roof in places which are difficult to viewand/or access. As a second example, a pipe may suffer a break that isconfined to a particular location, but broken pipes often lead toflooding, which may be widespread throughout an entire structure and thescope of such flooding may be impossible to determine during simpleinspection. Likewise, even though a fire may be contained to aparticular room or location in a building, it may cause smoke damagethroughout the entire building or even adjacent buildings in places noteasily accessible. Moreover, the building may suffer water damage and/orother types of damage as a result of efforts to extinguish the fire.Such damage may affect the structure of a property in ways that areimpossible to determine without extensive testing or, in some cases,actual demolition of the property.

When a damaged structure is insured, the first step in disastermitigation and restoration often involves notifying the insurancecompany of the damage or loss. The insurance company then typicallydispatches a person, e.g. a vendor or adjuster, to physically andpersonally visit the damaged location to assess the loss and write aninitial mitigation estimate that addresses the initial loss and anysecondary damages. Alternatively, the insured party may call a vendordirectly, personally provide a description of the damage to receive aninitial mitigation estimate from the vendor, and then contact theinsurance company.

Methods of inspecting roof damage typically also require physicalpresence of an analyst on or near the damaged building. Such methodslimit the analysis to buildings which the analyst or inspection companyhas obtained permission to inspect. In many cases, however, damagecaused by nature, e.g. hail or high-winds, is widespread andfar-reaching across city blocks, neighborhoods, towns and counties. Foran insurance or inspection company to obtain permission to physicallyaccess each and every damaged property after a storm may require anexhausting, time-consuming and expensive process.

Also, an owner of a damaged property or an insurance company may needestimates from a number of repair companies in order to generate anestimate of damage to the property. Each repair company, in order tosupply its own estimate or bid for cost of repairing the property mayneed its own analyst to physically visit the property. As such, oneestimate to one damaged property may require a multitude of analystsfrom different repair companies each visiting and analyzing theproperty. In the case of widespread damage across even one neighborhoodafter a storm a proper analysis of the damage would require anenormously time-consuming and expensive process before an estimate canbe generated. These expenses and time delays add up and add a great dealof economic waste with each individual property damaged.

Accuracy of damage estimates relies on accurate analysis. Analysisaccuracy and techniques may also vary between analysts making itdifficult and/or impossible to set industry-wide standards.

In today's world, due to a human not being efficient at looking at theentire roof for hail damage, most insurance adjusters take arepresentative sample to determine if there is hail damage for adirectional slope on the roof. This is not always representative of theentire condition of a directional slope on the roof.

What is needed, then, is a roof damage analysis system which (1) isautomated or otherwise does not require a human analyst to scale adamaged building, (2) is efficient and not time-consuming, (3) isreliable and provides accurate, standardized analysis, and (4) iscapable of analyzing damage in difficult to access areas.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

For a more complete understanding of the present disclosure and itsadvantages, reference is now made to the following description taken inconjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like referencenumerals represent like parts:

FIG. 1 illustrates a hardware block diagram of an exemplary system forperforming video or still image analysis on building structures inaccordance with embodiments described herein;

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary method of generating afeature list in accordance with embodiments described herein;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary method of generate adescription of features in accordance with embodiments described herein;and

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary method of applyingweighting and determining types and extents of damage to roofs inaccordance with embodiments described herein.

SUMMARY

It is with respect to the issues and other problems presently faced bythose of skill in the relevant art and described above that theembodiments presented herein are contemplated.

Unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientificterms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by oneof ordinary skill in the art to which this disclosure belongs. It willbe further understood that terms, such as those defined in commonly useddictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that isconsistent with their meaning in the context of the relevant art andthis disclosure.

As used herein, the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the” are intended toinclude the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicatesotherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprise,”“comprises,” and/or “comprising,” when used in this specification,specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations,elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence oraddition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations,elements, components, and/or groups thereof.

The phrases “at least one,” “one or more,” and “and/or” are open-endedexpressions that are both conjunctive and disjunctive in operation. Forexample, each of the expressions “at least one of A, B and C,” “at leastone of A, B, or C,” “one or more of A, B, and C,” “one or more of A, B,or C,” and “A, B, and/or C” means A alone, B alone, C alone, A and Btogether, A and C together, B and C together, or A, B and C together.

The term “automatic” and variations thereof, as used herein, refers toany process or operation done without material human input when theprocess or operation is performed. However, a process or operation canbe automatic, even though performance of the process or operation usesmaterial or immaterial human input, if the input is received beforeperformance of the process or operation. Human input is deemed to bematerial if such input influences how the process or operation will beperformed. Human input that consents to the performance of the processor operation is not deemed to be “material.”

Hereinafter, “in communication” shall mean any electrical connection,whether wireless or wired, that allows two or more systems, components,modules, devices, etc. to exchange data, signals, or other informationusing any protocol or format.

The terms “determine,” “calculate,” and “compute,” and variationsthereof, as used herein, are used interchangeably and include any typeof methodology, process, mathematical operation or technique.

Various embodiments of the present disclosure describe a system with theability to employ a machine to analyze damage to roofs in a number ofways. For example, embodiments of the present disclosure present asystem capable of identifying probable hail damage. Embodiments mayinclude systems capable of identifying locations of identified probablehail damage. Embodiments may also include systems capable of identifyingwhether or not an entire roof has been subjected to hail damage.Embodiments may include systems which determine such informationregarding roof damage through the analysis of video and/or still-imagesof the roof. It should be appreciated that as processing speeds andtechnology for video and images are increased and automated, anautomated solution could be highly cost effective and much safer thanhaving a human climb a roof to personally inspect the roof.

Embodiments presented herein further disclose a system comprising: animage receiver that receives one or more original roof images; a featureextractor that is used to identify features and corresponding locationsof the identified features from the one or more original roof images ora processed version thereof; a feature analyzer that generates a featurelist describing the identified features and the corresponding locationsof the identified features in a format that is deliverable to anautomated settlement engine. According to this embodiment, the automatedsettlement engine comprises: an image analysis system ApplicationProgramming Interface (API) configured to receive the feature list fromthe image analysis system; and, a set of image analysis rules that areconfigured to analyze the identified features from the feature listalong with the corresponding locations of the identified features todetermine whether or not hail damage occurred to a roof system withrespect to a predetermined likelihood.

Embodiments presented herein further disclose a system comprising: animage receiver tool that receives one or more original images; anextractor tool that identifies one or more features and theircorresponding locations; an analyzer tool that processes the informationobtained by the extractor tool and delivers the one or more identifiedfeatures and their corresponding locations to an automated settlementengine; an annotation tool that allows one or more features to be markedor further described by a user; wherein the automated settlement engineapplies one or more rules configured to determine whether sufficientdamage occurred; wherein when the application of the one or more rulesdictate that damage occurred with a probability greater than thepredetermined likelihood, then the system generates a report thatindicates damage has occurred and identifies the corresponding locationssubject to insurance coverage and reimbursement; and wherein when theapplication of the one or more rules dictate that damage occurred with aprobability less than the predetermined likelihood, then the systemgenerates a report that indicates a manual inspection of the roof systemis needed.

Embodiments of the present disclosure are further capable of consideringor suggesting a manual inspection for information from additional out ofthe line of site characteristics (e.g., the underside of the shingle matis fractured, and considering damages to soft metals and plastics).Considerations of this additional information not obtained from videoand/or still images can be used to weight a probability score as towhether or not the roof actually experienced hail damage in a particularlocation or along its entirety. Embodiments of the present disclosurecould also weigh these factors (e.g., video/still image informationalong with additional information not obtained from video and/or stillimages).

In some embodiments, each carrier represented in a settlement guidelineengine could set their probability algorithm (scores) based on theseattributes, meaning that each insurance carrier could define differentweighting algorithms and/or identify which features should be consideredor not considered by the automated process that analyzes roof damage forspecific markers of hail damage. The system could be configured toconsume photos or video to make these assessments.

Other system features include bookmarking components of the video,tagging potential marks, ongoing learning based on human review of thesemarks, insurance carrier specific learning for what their teams acceptas hail that are unique overtime building out acceptable images. Thesystem can also create a digital test square which is the methodcarriers use today which can be superimposed or “slid” over the roofslope to analyze damage, such as hail count changes, within the testsquare area, which may vary based on the location. The manufacturer datafor the specific shingle may be derived and taken into account to assistthe machine better predict the likelihood that an anomaly is or is not ahail strike. Methods on analyzing layers and patterns within knownmanufacturer shingle granular spray patterns, grains per inch based onslope exposure (north versus south/tree coverage/etc.) as well as age,oxidation (age of bruise), filtering images for organic matter (lichenpatterns), and other characteristics would be leveraged to help setprobabilities of hail damage versus non-hail damage. In particular,additional layers of shingles drastically increase the probability ofdamage due to the lack of a solid surface under the shingles.Furthermore, roof pitch is also a factor due to the angle of hail impactand may affect the shape of the hail damage pattern.

Further embodiments may also consider weather reports and stormdirectionality as both weather reports and directionality of the stormprovide good indications of what will be seen.

Incorporated by reference in their entireties are the following U.S.patents and patent applications directed generally to the relevant art,and identified for the purpose of supplementing the written descriptionfor various aspects of the present disclosure. The U.S. patents andpending applications incorporated by reference are as follows: U.S. Pat.Nos. 8,983,806, 9,158,869 and U.S. Pat. Pub. Nos. 2016/0098802.

The preceding is a simplified summary to provide an understanding ofsome aspects of the embodiments. This summary is neither an extensivenor exhaustive overview of the various embodiments. It is intendedneither to identify key or critical elements nor to delineate the scopeof the embodiments but to present selected concepts in a simplified formas an introduction to the more detailed description presented below. Aswill be appreciated, other embodiments are possible utilizing, alone orin combination, one or more of the features set forth above or describedin detail below.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

The ensuing description provides embodiments only and is not intended tolimit the scope, applicability, or configuration of the claims. Rather,the ensuing description will provide those skilled in the art with anenabling description for implementing the described embodiments. Itbeing understood that various changes may be made in the function andarrangement of elements without departing from the spirit and scope ofthe appended claims.

Embodiments of the present disclosure may be better understood withreference to FIGS. 1-4. Referring first to FIG. 1, an illustrativecommunication system 100 will be described in accordance with at leastsome embodiments of the present disclosure. The communication system 100of FIG. 1 may be a distributed system and, in some embodiments,comprises a communication network 104 connecting one or more imagecapture devices 108 (e.g., cameras, automated cameras/drones,smartphones equipped with cameras, video cameras, etc.) to an imageanalysis system 120 and automated settlement engine 116.

The communication system 100 may in some embodiments include one or moreroof systems 112. The system 100 in some embodiments may include asingle roof, e.g. a shingled roof of a home. In some embodiments, thesystem 100 may include multiple roofs of multiple types, for example aneighborhood of homes.

In some embodiments, the system may include one or more data capturedevices 108. A data capture device 108 may be in some embodiments ahandheld still image or video camera. In some embodiments, the datacapture device may be a smartphone or tablet or some other personalcomputing device with a camera. In some embodiments, the data capturedevice may be controlled and operated by a human operator eitherdirectly and/or physically by a handheld device 108 or remotely throughthe use of a drone or kite or some other flying device operable tocapture images or video. In some embodiments, the data may be collectedautomatically by a drone flying in an automatic pattern while recordingor taking photographs automatically.

Data collected by the data collector(s) 108 may be in the form of stillphotographs or video. Images or video may be collected by a handheldcamera or by a drone carrying a camera or by a camera-equipped kite orother type of aerial photography mechanism. The images may be takendirectly overhead or from an angle. The photos or videos may be taken bya camera capable of capturing hyper-spectral images, infrared or thermalimages and/or a common camera forming an image using visible light.

Data collected may be stored on a local memory device, e.g. onboard thecamera, or transmitted to a secondary local device, e.g. a laptop. Forexample, a data collection device 108 may be equipped with onboardmemory or a communication device operable to transmit the data tooff-board storage. Data may be tagged upon capture or at a later pointwith identifying information stored as metadata or at a later point withidentifying information stored as metadata or a folder name structure.Identifying information may include GPS data, a timestamp, insuranceplan data or other relevant information.

Data may also be live-streamed to a collecting server via a network 104.The collecting server may automatically store the received data so thatit may be easily retrieved. The data may be tagged by the collectingserver with identifying information or may be tagged by the collectingdevice prior to transmission. Data collected or stored locally may beuploaded in bulk or in portions to a server via the network 104. Thedata may be uploaded via the network 104 automatically or upon commandfrom a user operator.

Data collected by the one or more data collection devices 108 may besent to a server via the network 104. The data may be sent ortransmitted via a wireless network e.g. an LTE or other high-speedwireless communication network or via a wireless internet, e.g. WIFI,connection, or by wired connection, e.g. Ethernet or cable.

The server may be in the control of an insurance company or may beaccessible by a number of insurance companies or automated settlementengine operators. The sever may function as an image analysis system120. In some embodiments, the system comprises an image analysis system120. The image analysis system may comprise an image receiver, a featureextractor, and/or a feature analyzer. The image analysis system may be afunction performed by one or more processors on a server or apersonal-computing device. The image analysis system may accept, asinput, one or more image files. The one or more image files accepted bythe image analysis system may be in the form of JPEG, IMG, PNG, bitmap,or other image file. The image analysis system may also accept as inputone or more video files. The one or more video files may be in the formof MOV, MPEG, AVI, or other format of video file. The image and/or videofiles may also carry data in the form of metadata or tags. Additionallyor alternatively, the image and/or video files may be arranged insubsets of folders providing additional information. The additionalinformation or metadata may include information such as address or GPSor some other location data associated with the collected image or videofile, a timestamp, an operator identifier, insurance companyinformation, and/or other information. After receiving the files, theimage analysis system may use a feature extractor function toautomatically determine information regarding the roof system 120associated with the captured and received images and/or video files.

In some embodiments, the image analysis system 120 and automatedsettlement engine 116 may be implemented in a common entity and mayreside in a common enterprise network (e.g., behind a common firewall).In other embodiments, the systems 116, 120 may be implemented bydifferent entities and/or at different enterprise networks. In someembodiments, the automated settlement engine 116 and image analysissystem 120 may be implemented on a common server and that particularserver may have some or all of the components of both the automatedsettlement engine 116 and image analysis system 120. The depiction ofthe image analysis system 120 as being separate from the automatedsettlement engine 116 is for illustrative purposes only and should notbe construed as limiting the communication system to any particularconfiguration.

In accordance with at least some embodiments of the present disclosure,the communication network 104 may comprise any type of knowncommunication medium or collection of communication media and may useany type of protocols to transport messages between endpoints. Thecommunication network 104 may include wired and/or wirelesscommunication technologies. The Internet is an example of thecommunication network 104 that constitutes an Internet Protocol (IP)network consisting of many computers, computing networks, and othercommunication devices located all over the world, which are connectedthrough many telephone systems and other means. Other examples of thecommunication network 104 include, without limitation, a standard PlainOld Telephone System (POTS), an Integrated Services Digital Network(ISDN), the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), a Local AreaNetwork (LAN), a Wide Area Network (WAN), a Voice over Internet Protocol(VoIP) network, a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) network, a cellularnetwork, and any other type of packet-switched or circuit-switchednetwork known in the art. In addition, it can be appreciated that thecommunication network 104 need not be limited to any one network type,and instead may be comprised of a number of different networks and/ornetwork types. The communication network 104 may comprise a number ofdifferent communication media such as coaxial cable, copper cable/wire,fiber-optic cable, antennas for transmitting/receiving wirelessmessages, and combinations thereof.

The image capture device(s) 108 may be configured to capture one or moreimages (still or motion) of a roof system 112 and provide the images tothe image analysis system 120 via the communication network 104 or someother image-delivery mechanism. As shown in FIG. 2, the images receivedat the image analysis system 120 correspond to original roof image(s)204. The image analysis system 120 may employ the image receiver 124 toinitially receive and store the original roof image(s) 204 from theimage capture device(s) 108.

The image analysis system 120 may then utilize automated imageprocessing technologies (e.g., contrast detection, contrast adjustment,color-to-greyscale conversion, grayscale-to-black-and-white conversion,pixel color or brightness analysis, adjacent pixel analysis, etc.) toautomatically convert the original roof image(s) 204 intoenhanced/processed roof image(s) 208. These enhanced/processed roofimage(s) 208 may then be provided to the feature extractor 128, whichanalyzes the image(s) to identify locations of features, highlightfeatures, and/or mark features found within the images. It should beappreciated that the feature extractor 128 may operate on original roofimage(s) 204 in addition to or in lieu of operating onenhanced/processed roof image(s) 208.

The image analysis system 120 may then employ a feature analyzer 132 toautomatically analyze the extracted features 212 to develop a featurelist 216. In some embodiments, the feature analyzer 132 may develop afeature list 216 that may include a textual description of features andtheir locations (relative to one another and/or relative to a fixedpoint on the roof system 112). The feature list 216 may further includea description of the type, size, and shape of each feature in theextracted features 212. These features may correspond to locations wherepotential damage is visible on the roof system 112. As an example,extracted features 212 may correspond to identified locations in theoriginal roof image that exhibit a visual similarity to damage shingles,gutters, vents, windows, siding, bricks, or other materials. This damagemay be visible and identifiable via the image processing and featureextraction processes described herein. The feature analyzer 132 mayformat the feature list 216 in such a way that the feature list 216 isdeliverable to an automated settlement engine 116.

FIG. 3 shows a method in accordance with one embodiment that may beemployed to generate the feature list 216. In particular, raw roofimages may be received (step 304) and then have image processing appliedthereto by the image analysis system 120 (step 308). Thereafter, thefeatures found within the image(s) may be automatically marked and theirlocations identified (whether relative to other features or a specificobject included in the image, e.g., a coin, dollar bill, roof corner,roof peak, etc.) (step 312). The feature analyzer 132 may thenautomatically generate a description of the features (e.g., shape, size,etc.) along with the feature locations and identification of otherobjects (e.g., non-roof objects) (step 316). This description can thenbe delivered (presumably as a feature list 216) to the automatedsettlement engine 116 for further processing as described herein (step320).

In some embodiments, the automated settlement engine 116 includes animage analysis system API 136 that provides an interface for the imageanalysis system 120. The API 136 may define rules for delivering thefeature list 216 (e.g., data structure, file format, maximum charactersper entry, location definition requirements, etc.). The image analysissystem API 136 may provide the conduit through which the feature list216 is delivered to the automated settlement engine 116.

As shown in FIG. 4, once the feature list 216 is received at theautomated settlement engine 116 (step 404), the automate settlementengine 116 may begin employing its other components to analyze theoverall damage to the roof to determine, in an automated orsemi-automated fashion, whether the damage corresponds to hail or someother type of damage that occurred naturally and it, therefore, subjectto insurance coverage and reimbursement.

The automated settlement engine 116 may include a set of insurancecarrier-specific guidelines 140 that are used to define how theautomated settlement engine 116 operates on a specific set or subset ofimages. More specifically, if the images are from a roof system 112insured by insurance carrier A, then a first set of rules may be appliedto the analysis of the images where if the images are from a roof system112 insured by insurance carrier B, then a second set of rules may beapplied to the analysis of the images (assuming there is a differencebetween insurance carrier A and carrier B's guidelines 140).

The automated settlement engine 116 may also include image analysisrules 144 and rules for analyzing non-image information 148. Finally,the automated settlement engine 116 may include a weighting engine 152and reporting engine 156.

Thus, to complete the processing depicted in FIG. 4, the methodcontinues with the automated settlement engine 116 receiving informationregarding non-image objects (step 408). This type of information caninclude a description of non-roof objects (e.g., gutters, siding,fencing, trees, etc.) that help describe the environment surrounding theroof system 112. The roof images may then be analyzed using the imageanalysis rules 144. In particular, the image analysis rules 144 mayanalyze the locations of features from the images to see if there is arandom, non-random, or ordered characteristic to their distribution. Theimage analysis rules 144 may also analyze whether or not the entirety ofthe roof system 112 was subjected to damage (e.g., has features locatedthereon) or whether only a subset of the roof system 112 has beensubjected to damage. As an example, only North or West facing roofportions may have been subjected to damage whereas the South and Eastfacing roof portions were not. Hail damage is also usually associatedwith random or non-ordered locations of damage within a damage area. Ifthe image analysis rules 144 identify an order or pattern to the damageor locations of features, then it may be determined that actual haildamage did not occur and is, therefore, not subject to insurancecoverage. In some embodiments, an elevation inspection may beautomatically performed prior to a roof inspection. On the elevationinspection, analysis may include an inspection for damage and non-damageto items that are commonly damaged by hail. These items, in someembodiments, may correspond to items constructed of soft metals,plastics, and fiberglass. Examples of such items/objects include,without limitation, gutters, downspouts, window screens, dryer vents, ACfins, etc. It is rare to find damage to the roof shingles withoutfinding supporting evidence on the elevations. On the roof, soft metalsand plastic vents should also show damage. Lack of such damage mayprovide an indication of non-hail damage to the roof system.

The image analysis rules 144 applied by the automated settlement engine116 may depend upon the carrier-specific guidelines 140 being employed.The application of non-image analysis rules 148 may also depend upon thecarrier-specific guidelines 140. Analysis of the different aspects ofimages and non-image information may then be weighted according to aweighting engine 152. In some embodiments, a weighting is determinedbased on the carrier-specific guidelines 140 (step 412) and thedetermined weighting is applied by the weighting engine 152 (step 416).The different factors that can be weighted differently depending uponcarrier-specific guidelines 140 include, without limitation, number offeatures/hail strikes identified within a predetermined area, size offeatures/hail strikes, shapes of features/hail strikes, relativelocations of features/hail strikes, total extent of overall hail damageto roof, environmental/non-roof damage (e.g., tree damage, sidingdamage, gutter damage, etc.), age of roof, roofing material, age ofhouse, reported damage of surrounding houses, etc. The applied weightingcan be used to develop a probability score as to whether or not the roofactually experienced hail damage in a particular location or along itsentirety (step 420). Embodiments of the present disclosure could alsoweigh these factors (e.g., video/still image information along withadditional information not obtained from video and/or still images).This information can then be included in a report generated by areporting engine 156 that is delivered to the insured, the insurancecarrier, and/or an operator of the automated settlement engine 116and/or image analysis system 120.

As extensions to the above-described solutions, embodiments of thepresent disclosure contemplate the following. When there is damage tothe roof that the system determines is not hail, it may be possible toprovide a probability of what the non-hail damage corresponds to. Forexample, organic shingles are manufactured with paper instead offiberglass, so over time they are prone to blister popping (spots ofgranule loss) due to getting wet and the moisture evaporating andpopping granules off. Additionally, the south slope wears out thefastest due to the extra sun it receives. In some embodiments, haildamage probability could be expanded to all types of roof damage (wind,blister popping, nail pops, mechanical damage, etc.) It should also beappreciated that embodiments of the present disclosure also includesolutions where an inspector manually inspects the roof and takes photosfor review, as opposed to an automated device such as a drone.

As can be seen from the above description, the systems and methodsdisclosed herein are useful for automating the process of determiningwhether or not hail damage has been inflicted upon a roof. Specificdetails were given in the description to provide a thoroughunderstanding of the embodiments. However, it will be understood by oneof ordinary skill in the art that the embodiments may be practicedwithout these specific details. For example, well-known circuits,processes, algorithms, structures, and techniques have been shownwithout unnecessary detail in order to avoid obscuring the embodiments.Persons of ordinary skill in the art will also understand that variousembodiments described above may be used in combination with each otherwithout departing from the scope of the present disclosure.

While illustrative embodiments of the disclosure have been described indetail herein, it is to be understood that the inventive concepts may beotherwise variously embodied and employed, and that the appended claimsare intended to be construed to include such variations, except aslimited by the prior art.

Moreover, aspects of the present disclosure may take the form of anentirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment (includingfirmware, resident software, micro-code, etc.) or an embodimentcombining software and hardware aspects that may all generally bereferred to herein as a “circuit,” “module” or “system.” Any combinationof one or more computer readable medium(s) may be utilized. The computerreadable medium may be a computer readable signal medium or a computerreadable storage medium.

A computer readable storage medium may be, for example, but not limitedto, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, orsemiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any suitable combinationof the foregoing. More specific examples (a non-exhaustive list) of thecomputer readable storage medium would include the following: anelectrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computerdiskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory(ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flashmemory), an optical fiber, a portable compact disc read-only memory(CD-ROM), an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or anysuitable combination of the foregoing. In the context of this document,a computer readable storage medium may be any tangible medium that cancontain, or store a program for use by or in connection with aninstruction execution system, apparatus, or device.

A computer readable signal medium may include a propagated data signalwith computer readable program code embodied therein, for example, inbaseband or as part of a carrier wave. Such a propagated signal may takeany of a variety of forms, including, but not limited to,electro-magnetic, optical, or any suitable combination thereof. Acomputer readable signal medium may be any computer readable medium thatis not a computer readable storage medium and that can communicate,propagate, or transport a program for use by or in connection with aninstruction execution system, apparatus, or device. Program codeembodied on a computer readable medium may be transmitted using anyappropriate medium, including but not limited to wireless, wireline,optical fiber cable, RF, etc., or any suitable combination of theforegoing.

Specific details were given in the description to provide a thoroughunderstanding of the embodiments. However, it will be understood by oneof ordinary skill in the art that the embodiments may be practicedwithout these specific details. For example, circuits may be shown inblock diagrams in order not to obscure the embodiments in unnecessarydetail. In other instances, well-known circuits, processes, algorithms,structures, and techniques may be shown without unnecessary detail inorder to avoid obscuring the description.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system, comprising: an image analysis systemcomprising: an image receiver that receives one or more original roofimages; a feature extractor that is used to identify features andcorresponding locations of the identified features from the one or moreoriginal roof images or a processed version thereof; a feature analyzerthat generates a feature list describing the identified features and thecorresponding locations of the identified features in a format that isdeliverable to an automated settlement engine; the automated settlementengine comprising: an image analysis system Application ProgrammingInterface (API) that is configured to receive the feature list from theimage analysis system; and a set of image analysis rules that areconfigured to analyze the identified features from the feature listalong with the corresponding locations of the identified features todetermine whether or not hail damage occurred to a roof system withrespect to a predetermined likelihood; and a weighting engine thatapplies a weighting factor to different variables for the identifiedfeatures to determine whether or not hail damage occurred to the roofsystem with respect to the predetermined likelihood, wherein thevariables are selected from a group consisting of the following: numberof features/hail strikes identified within a predetermined area, size offeatures/hail strikes, shapes of features/hail strikes, relativelocations of features/hail strikes, total extent of overall hail damageto roof, environmental damage, tree damage, siding damage, gutterdamage, age of roof, roofing material, age of house, reported damage ofsurrounding houses, non-damage, other property attributes.
 2. The systemof claim 1, wherein when the set of image analysis rules dictate thathail damage occurred to the roof system with a probability greater thanthe predetermined likelihood, then the set of image analysis rulesgenerate a report that indicates hail damage has occurred and should besubject to insurance coverage and reimbursement.
 3. The system of claim1, wherein when the set of image analysis rules dictate that hail damageoccurred to the roof system with a probability less than thepredetermined likelihood, then the set of image analysis rules generatea report that indicates a manual inspection of the roof system isneeded.
 4. The system of claim 1, wherein the identified featurescorrespond to hail damage on the roof system.
 5. The system of claim 1,wherein a third party insurer selects rules for the weighting engine orassigns a specific weighting factors to one or more of the differentvariables.
 6. The system of claim 1, further comprising: an imageannotator that allows one or more images to be marked, tagged orotherwise identified for review.
 7. The system of claim 1, furthercomprising: a digital test square, wherein the test square may besuperimposed over a specific area of the roof to compare hail damagecounts within the test square area with other areas of the roof.
 8. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein the feature list comprises a textualdescription of each feature and their locations relative to one or moreof another feature and a fixed point on the roof system, and wherein thetextual description comprises a description of the type, size, and shapeof each feature.
 9. The system of claim 1, wherein the feature extractorextracts features corresponding to identified locations in the originalroof images that exhibit similar characteristics to damaged shingles,gutters, vents, windows, siding, bricks, or other materials.
 10. Asystem for preparing an insured asset settlement, comprising: an imagereceiver tool that receives one or more original images; an extractortool that identifies one or more features and their correspondinglocations; an analyzer tool that processes the information obtained bythe extractor tool and delivers the one or more identified features andtheir corresponding locations to an automated settlement engine; anannotation tool that allows one or more features to be marked or furtherdescribed by a user; wherein the automated settlement engine applies oneor more rules configured to determine whether sufficient damageoccurred, wherein the automated settlement engine receives additionalinformation describing the environment captured in the one or moreoriginal images, and wherein the weighting factors are weighteddifferently depending upon carrier-specific guidelines and are selectedfrom a group consisting of the following: the number of hail strikesidentified within a predetermined area, the size of hail strikes, theshapes of hail strikes, the relative locations of hail strikes, thetotal extent of overall hail damage, the presence of other damage to thesurrounding environment, the age of roof, the roofing material, the ageof the house, the reported damage of surrounding houses, and otherattributes; wherein when the application of the one or more rulesdictate that damage occurred with a probability greater than thepredetermined likelihood, then the system generates a report thatindicates damage has occurred and identifies the corresponding locationssubject to insurance coverage and reimbursement; and wherein when theapplication of the one or more rules dictate that damage occurred with aprobability less than the predetermined likelihood, then the systemgenerates a report that indicates a manual inspection is needed.
 11. Thesystem of claim 10, wherein the automated settlement engine furthercomprises a set of insurance carrier-specific guidelines that define howthe automated settlement engine operates on a specific set or subset ofthe one or more features.
 12. The system of claim 11, wherein aweighting factor is determined based on the carrier-specific guidelinesand then applied to the one or more features by the automated settlementengine.
 13. The system of claim 11, wherein the one or more rulesanalyze the one or more identified features and their correspondinglocations to determine if there is a random, non-random, or orderedcharacteristic to their distribution.
 14. The system of claim 11,further comprising: a digital test square, wherein the test square maybe superimposed over the one or more original images to compare thedegree of damage within the test square area with other areas capturedin the one or more original images.
 15. The system of claim 11, whereinthe one or more features correspond to hail damage on a roof system of aresidential building.